Sunday, October 5, 2014

Tomorrow at McGill: Wayne Norman, Mike & Ruth Mackowski Professor of Ethics at Duke University, will be here to present the inaugural lecture of the McGill University Spiegel Sohmer Tax Policy Colloquium. He will be talking about how we ought to think about the social pressures coming to bear on multinational tax avoidance, with a special focus on Apple. His presentation is entitled "Corporate Tax and Beyond-Compliance Norms."

The topic is obviously timely. If you've been watching the news, you know that it has recently been revealed that Apple and governments get along very, very well when it comes to taxes. In Europe, Apple's side deals with Ireland have come under scrutiny as a possible form of state aid, against EU law; in the United States, Apple has faced lawmakers' bark but no bite. Here is some recent media coverage, most from the Guardian:

I have been saying for some time that even after a century of study, we have yet to articulate a principled way to allocate the global income tax base, and we ought to ask philosophers for help. I am pleased that Professor Norman will engage on the topic.

Legal Disclaimer

I am not anyone's lawyer. I do not provide tax or legal advice. This material on this site is commentary. It is not intended to provide, and should not be relied on by anyone for, tax, legal or accounting advice.

Copyright Notice

Readers are welcome to share excerpts from and link to blog posts on this site. Please give credit to this blog, with appropriate citation to the original content.